good afternoon and thank you for joining
us for our daily briefing in the fight
against covert 19 I'm joined today by
dr. Jenny Harris the deputy chief
medical officer and professor Stephen
Paris the medical director of NHS
England I like first to update you all
on the facts about the spread of college
19 and the steps that we are then taking
in the battle against this virus 143
thousand 186 people have now been tested
for the virus of those 25,000 150 have
tested positive
and sadly yesterday we recorded the
highest single increase in the number of
deaths as a result of college 19 381
people died
meaning that of those hospitalized in
the UK the number who have passed away
now Turtles 1780 not every death is the
loss of a loved one and our thoughts and
prayers are with those who are grieving
over all 10,000 767 people in England
have been admitted to hospital we've
covered 19 symptoms the largest number
of those is in London with 3915 people
in hospital care while in the Midlands
the number of those hospitalized is now
1918 and accelerating upwards these
numbers reinforce the vital importance
of following the government's social
distancing the more we restrict contact
the more we slow the spread of the
infection the more that we can help the
NHS build the capacity needed to care
for those most in need and that capacity
is increasing more NHS staff are
returning to the frontline and more
testing is taking place to help those
self-isolation come back and to protect
those working so hard in our hospitals
and in social care
baa-baa the rate of testing is
creasing we must go further faster a
critical constraint on the ability to
rapidly increase testing capacity is the
availability of the chemical reagents
which are necessary in the testing the
Prime Minister and the health secretary
are working with companies worldwide to
ensure that we get the material we need
to increase tests of all kinds and as
well as increasing the number of staff
on the frontline and the tests which
protect them
we must also increase the capacity to
provide oxygen to those worst affected
by the disease we have just over 8,000
ventilators deployed in NHS hospitals
now this number has increased since the
epidemic began thanks to the hard work
of NHS professionals but we need more
that's what we are buying or ventilators
from abroad including from EU nations
and it's also why we're developing new
sources of supply at home before the
epidemic struck we had very little
domestic manufacture of ventilators but
now thanks to the dedication of existing
medical supply companies and the
ingenuity of our manufacturing base we
have existing models being produced in
significantly greater numbers and new
models coming on stream orders have been
placed with consortium led by forward
Airbus the Formula One racing teams
including McLaren GKN aerospace and
rolls-royce and Dyson's and I can
announce that this weekend the first
thousands of new ventilator devices will
roll off the production line and be
delivered to the NHS next week from
there they will be rapidly distributed
to the frontline and as well as
increasing the capacity for ventilation
which helps support those patients
worst-affected were also increasing the
capacity to provide oxygen to affected
patients at an earlier stage in the
process of the disease helping to avert
we hope the deterioration of their
condition a team led by UCL working with
mercedes-benz will produce 10,000 new
CPAP devices to support affected
patients and a team from Oxford
University
are also developing related to
technology and in our determination to
prevent as many patients as possible
seeing their condition worsen we are
conducting rapid of clinical trials on
those drugs including anti-malarials
which may be able to reduce the impact
of covered 19 on those affected but even
as we seek to explore every avenue to
slow the spread of the disease to reduce
its impact and to save lives unconscious
of the sacrifices that so many are
making that's why the chancellor's
economic packages and flex to support
people through a difficult time it's
also why we are working so closely with
our colleagues in the devolved
administration's to coordinate our
response across the United Kingdom and
I'm grateful as I am to the thousands of
dedicated public sector workers cleaners
and social workers prison and police
officers those in the Royal Mail and in
our schools and I want to thank them and
also the leaders of the trade unions who
represent in this united national effort
we're also delivering food and
prescription drugs to up to 1.5 million
of the most vulnerable for self
isolating for three months and we will
do more to help working with the
three-quarters of a million people who
volunteered to help at this time many
are already heavily involved in local
community support schemes and we want to
work with them do we do ensure that we
support not just the 1.5 million most
vulnerable to the disease but all those
who need our help through this crisis
those without social support those in
tough economic circumstances those who
need the visible hand of friendship at a
challenging time that's why my cabinet
colleague George Eustace and the food
and farming Minister Victoria Prentice
will be leading work with food suppliers
retailers local authorities and
voluntary groups to support our
neighbors in need I also want to thank
the men and women of the military who
stepped up their work as part of the
ongoing response to coronavirus three
RAF puma helicopters
and I stationed at kinloss barracks and
my these Pumas are working closely with
a Chinook and the world pack helicopter
based at RAF leaming in North Yorkshire
to eat requests for assistance from NHS
boards and trusts across Scotland and
Northern England a second helicopter
facility covers the Midlands and
southern England working out of the
Aviation task force headquarters at RAF
Benson and Oxfordshire Chinook and
well-kept helicopters normally based at
RAF odium and RNAs yogam respectively
supports the southern areas and these
helicopter facilities have been set up
to support medical transport across
Scotland and the rest of the United
Kingdom the task force is also available
for general support such as moving
equipment and personnel to where they
are needed across the United Kingdom and
the kilowatts based support follows the
use of an RAF a400m transport aircraft
working with a Scottish Ambulance
Service to evacuate a critically ill
patient from the Shetland Islands to
Aberdeen to receive intensive care
treatment undg grateful for everyone in
the Armed Forces and in the public
sector we're doing so much to help us in
the fight against coronavirus and of
course all can continue to play our part
in supporting them and the Health
Service by staying at home supporting
the NHS and saving lives now I want to
ask Stephen to run through the latest
data from our Cabinet Office coronavirus
fact file Steve thank you so our
incredible staff in the NHS are working
round-the-clock pulling out all the
stops to prepare for the expected surge
in patients with Kovac 19 I saw that
myself at the NHS Nightingale Hospital
in East London this morning and was
completely bowled over by the work that
is being done there from a standing
start a week ago to a new hospital that
will be ready to take patients later
this week but as we have repeatedly said
and as you have just heard NHS staff
cannot do this on their own yes we can
increase
capacity but we also need everybody in
the country every one of you to help by
reducing the transmission of the virus
because it is by doing that that we will
reduce the number of deaths and we will
take the pressure of our hospitals and
our health system and the charts that
I'm about to show you will show you why
that is so important so all the
interventions all the instructions that
the government have given based on the
best possible scientific advice and
similar to the approach being taken in
many countries around the world are
designed to reduce social contact in
other words to reduce the chance that a
virus the virus is passed from one
person to another and by doing that the
spread of the virus reduces and the
number of infections reduces I'm pleased
to say that the great British public are
paying attention to that message and we
see in many ways that that amount of
social contact is now reducing so this
first chart shows you an example of that
transport and as you can see the number
of people using our transplant services
has reduced dramatically over the last
few weeks
so for example you can see in the light
blue line that transport in London on
the tube has decreased dramatically
which demonstrates that people are
paying attention and understand the
message we are giving and there are many
other examples that show that that
contact is being reduced as the next
chart shows that plays into an impact on
the number of infections so the less
social contact the less the chance is
that the virus can move from one person
to another and that will over time
reduce the number of infections that we
are seeing the number of people testing
positive and you can see here that we
have had a rise in the number of UK
cases but recently there is a little bit
of a plateau now I think it's really
important not to read too much into this
because it's early days we're not out of
the woods we're very much in the woods
and it's really important that we keep
complying with
instructions but as you can see the
number of affections is not rising as
rapidly as it was so green shoots but
only green shoots and we must not be
complacent and we must not take our foot
off the pedal now if in sections fall as
the next chart shows that will also
translate into fewer hospital admissions
hospital missions typically occur a week
or two after an infection and remember
for the vast majority of people Kovach
19 is a mild flu-like illness a heavy
cold but for a small percentage of
people hospitalization is required now
you can see here that the rate of
hospitalization has been increasing and
we would expect that at this stage in
the epidemic but if those infections
start to drop then in the next few weeks
our hope is that the number of
hospitalizations will also start to
reduce now the good news here is that
that line is not going up very steeply
but it is still rising we're not out of
the woods we need to keep our foot on
the pedal and as you can see there
around a third of the hospital missions
are in London because as we have said
and as we know the infection is
spreading more rapidly in London and
London is a bit ahead of the rest of the
country in terms of this epidemic now as
the next chart shows hospitalization
unfortunately some people who are
supplies do die every death is tragic
and we absolutely need to avoid as many
deaths as possible by all playing our
part so what we want to see over time is
a reduction in the number of deaths and
you can see here a comparison of deaths
in different countries and you can see
maybe in the very light line in the
middle that China over time is flattened
that particular line in other words the
number of deaths have reduced and so if
we reduce a number of infections we will
reduce the number of hospitalizations
and we will reduce the number of deaths
maybe some green shoots but the last
thing I would want is a message to
anybody that this is a time to take our
foot off the pedal
to not comply with the instructions
because this is not a short haul as we
said this is going to take time and it's
important that we all stick with it
everybody thank you thank you very much
Steven will now go to our colleagues in
the media to ask a series of questions
and first we turn to you've him of the
BBC q thank you
many NHS staff are saying that testing
for them is not obviously available in
their places of work now or somewhere
accessible even after pledges made by
officials and ministers in recent weeks
it was a priority what do you say to
them well you we want to increase the
number of tests we are increasing the
number of tests I mentioned earlier that
one of the constraints on our capacity
to increase testing overall is supply of
these specific reagents the specific
chemicals that are needed in order to
make sure the tests are reliable it's
also the case as I'm sure you are aware
that we've been working with the private
sector and with academics and Boots for
example have increased the number of
drive-in centres for NHS and frontline
workers to be tested but I'll hand over
to Stephen first of all so you're
absolutely right here it's absolutely
crucial that NHS staff are testing as I
said before that's for two reasons one
because those are who are self isolating
because they have symptoms or are in
household quarantine because one of
their household has symptoms they may
not have this virus it's still possible
that they have another cold like illness
and if we know that they test negative
or their relative test negative then we
can bring them back to work and that's
important obviously at a time when the
NHS is under pressure and then secondly
if they have had the virus then it is
likely that once they get over the
infection they will be immune and that's
really important to know as they come
back to work
so I'm really pleased to say that as
testing ramps up it is producing the
capacity to increase our testing of
staff we wrote to staff or all NHS
trusts on Sunday to ask them to start to
produce lists of the staff
our most key and that they would want to
test first or the households that they
would want to test and they are already
doing that and we are beginning to ramp
up the testing of staff exactly as
assignment Stephens promised on Friday
when he was here Thank You comments I
think you will know that we've been as
Stephen said ramping up the capacity
within the NHS and we're heading towards
25,000 on that I think we're up to about
12,000 700 so that's a steady increase
over the last few days so that
represents additional capacity there as
we've just mentioned but there is of
course and other elements of this which
is if you are an ill member of staff you
do not want to be going into your
hospital to be tested we want you to
stay away and the really positive
development there would be to ensure
that our postal testing system is
operational because that will be much
easier both for the staff that we would
like to offer that to and in due course
to other frontline workers and then
potentially on to the public and that
testing is ongoing
a bit like the reagents thing you have
to make sure that the the time period of
the postal sample doesn't allow for the
virus to degrade as it goes through or
will end up with an inaccurate test but
there is a lot of testing going on for
that at the moment and that will be I
think a really helpful practical
mechanism for NHS staff to use thank you
very much Jane I'll turn now to Robert
Peston from ITV Racha good afternoon
good afternoon three weeks a week ago
when the Prime Minister introduced those
restrictions on our freedom of movement
he said it would take three weeks for us
to know whether those restrictions would
allow the NHS to cope her talk today
about green chutes does that mean that
you are more confident than you were
that the NHS will cope and could you
just give us a sense of the data that
gives you that confidence if you are a
bit more confident and a couple of other
quick things every day we're Dell used
with statistics about how much
protective equipment is in the system
but equally every
doctors come to me and they say they
don't feel protective they are not
getting the equipment why is there that
mismatch between the volume of equipment
and it actually getting to people and
then finally even if the NHS is better
able to cope the backs we feared a few
days ago there are still record numbers
of deaths in hospitals in a short space
of time are you expecting to give any
new guidance to doctors about when it's
appropriate to send somebody home to die
because they are so frail that the
prospect of surviving in hospital is
slim and it is probably better for them
and their families that they died with
their loved ones thank you Robert let me
try and answer in part at least the
first two questions and then I'll ask
Stephen and Jenny to come in Stephen is
right there are some signs as a result
of people observing social distancing
that we may be able to flatten the
spread of infection but now is
absolutely not
the time for people to imagine that
there can be any relaxation or
slackening this is a hopeful sign but we
must be a Stephen pointed out wary of
over interpreting any individual days
data we must ensure that we maintain
this united national effort in order to
keep people safe that's the first thing
so I just wanted to emphasize as Stephen
did that people's efforts people
sacrifices are worth it they are making
a difference but we must not let up on
only the point about personal protective
equipment we know that hundreds of
yesterday just yesterday hundreds of
thousands of aprons hi protectors
respiratory masks surgical masks and
gloves reach the frontline and there is
a 24-hour helpline if any frontline NHS
worker is concerned about not having the
PPE equipment that they need they can
call in order to make sure that PPE
equipment can be delivered but I'll hand
over to Stephen to say a little bit more
oh Jenny Stephen so I honestly think
it's too early to tell at the moment and
I very specifically used the term green
shoots because they are just green
shoots and and and winter could come and
those green shoots could turn out to be
not the hopeful green shoots that we
thought they might be but I think the
next week or two will be critical as we
move through as I said in those charts
there are signs Patrick Patrick valance
said yesterday that transmission in the
community is reducing that's exactly
what we would expect if the public
comply with the measures to reduce
social contact but there is a lag as I
described before we see that in the
number of hospital admissions and then
in the number of deaths so I think the
next week or two are going to be
critical but this is a start of a battle
we can't stop this virus but we're at
the start and we mustn't let let let go
of the measures and let go of everything
that we're doing they have to keep the
foot on the pedal as I said no
complacency I want to encourage the
public that they are playing their part
but I don't want to give the message
that we need to do anything other than
maintain our compliance with the
instructions everybody needs to do that
because that is the only way that is the
only way that we will get through this
thank you if you want to address
questions obviously I'm happy to start
on that one and also I was going to
because we're talking it on the PPE
question which I might start with and if
that's okay and so I think if your
question was quite interesting actually
because the way that you posed it around
personal protective equipment was very
much about were people getting it and
how did they feel about it and I think
that is actually really critical so I
think the first thing to say is the UK
has always had sufficient stocks today
that it needs against its guidelines and
those guidelines are amongst the best in
the world
the w-h-o actually produced a statement
at the weekend very much supporting
guidance on that
it's equivalent to Australia Canada it's
supported by European Society of
intensive care and the Society of
critical care medicine so there is a
there is a strong evidence base around
what we recommend I think there has been
a lot of concern in the system about
whether our guidance differed in any way
and we are continuously reviewing that
to the extent that we have asked the
Health and Safety Executive to have a
look and they have produced in very
positive guidance on that and equally
there was a report by Tricia Greenhill
around face masks which was also very
supportive of the position we have so we
are continuously checking I think one of
the issues have and I have to admit I
stood here I think about 10 days ago and
said very probably optimistically now in
the past we've we've solved the PPE
position so my apologies because 48
hours later I think our distribution
issue had popped back in again and so
the distribution element has been a
little bit tricky at times and we have
now taken a whole strand of the
logistics including with the army
support actually out so that we are
developing a UK position on that stock
and distribution flow and the underlying
critical point about this is that the
PPE should go to match where the
critical clinical risk is so that
doesn't matter whether you are a
consultant in an A&E department or a
domiciliary care worker looking after a
resident at home you may not have the
same PP in fact I would expect you not
to have but you're the PPE that you have
is proportionate to the risk exposure
that you have that's really important so
it doesn't matter where you are in the
system so I think there have been some
distribution issues we're developing an
any system so that will make it much
easier for for example for care homes to
to have that but then I think I wanted
also to address the second point which
is actually how people feel so Steven I
almost certainly have colleagues friends
family working on the front line and are
very attuned to how it feels just as it
does
rest of the public this can feel quite
frightening at the moment and if you are
continuously seeing patients coming
through the door that is particularly
the case so we're very attuned to this
and what we have been doing over the
last few days is reviewing our guidance
to see if although we've quite satisfied
with the technical basis of it if we can
make some small tweaks if you like to
ensure that people feel safer in what
they're doing and we're addressing that
over the current period end of life
caries is obviously incredibly important
and I think one of the aims that we have
tried to maintain throughout this by
increasing the capacity of the NHS and
also suppressing the virus and reducing
the demand on the NHS is to ensure that
clinicians doctors nurses can manage
patients as they always do and manage
end-of-life as they always do so I would
expect end-of-life care to be just as
good as it is in normal times and I know
that's something that our clinicians and
hospitals and other healthcare
facilities are thinking about very
carefully clearly with the additional
impact of the via of this particular
virus we do need to think carefully
about when people are discharged from
hospital if they have had kovat and so
we have issued specific guidance to
assist in that discharge for instance in
discharging into care homes
so we've taken account of the fact that
over and above on normal procedures we
need to take account that we have a new
infectious disease thank you very much
Steven and I want to turn to Charlotte
Ivers of talk radio shot Germany and
South Korea have been held up as
examples of how to get this right
Howard's
you will describe the UK's response
relative to that better or worse and if
I may mr. go can we expect to see tax
rises in the next couple of years after
all this is over well thank you
we long we learn from
other countries we collaborate with
other countries and I think that it's
certainly the case that different
countries with different health care
systems have approached dealing with the
virus in overlapping complementary ways
I think that one of the things I would
say just observing it is that the NHS
has formidable resources and advantages
the dedication of our staff the fact
that we can stand up a new hospital like
NHS Nightingale so quickly and the
quality of the the data and the
scientific input that I see when I
observe the work of dedicated NHS
professionals and scientists are well
and and all of it so I think that we
should be all of us grateful that we
have the NHS and that we have the
academic excellence that underpins it
but of course we can and are learning
from other nations in their approach to
dealing with fee with the virus on the
question of the economic choices for the
future
I think the most important thing to
understand is that the Chancellor has
taken steps in order to ensure that we
can put our arms around workers in order
to ensure that they can feel confident
about their future that's the best way
of making sure that more people are kept
on by employers that the economy can
grow again in the future and that the
mixture of different instruments at the
Chancellor's disposal including
borrowing are there in order to ensure
that we can see future economic growth
tax decisions in the future will be a
matter for the Prime Minister and for
the Chancellor but on international
comparisons I don't know Steven if is
anything we want there's a few points
about international comparisons so
firstly there are differences between
countries in how the virus has come to
light so in some countries for instance
Italy where in northern Italy that was a
very concentrated spread of the virus in
a particular part of the country so
countries have responded in different
ways than the virus has emerged in
different ways and we can learn a thing
we can learn from that but it's not the
virus has not made it manifest itself in
exactly the same way never
country second point as Michael said is
that different countries are different
health systems and in fact one of the
great strengths of the NHS means that we
are in a position to coordinate care
very well so for instance in London at
the moment which is the part of the
country under most pressure hospitals
can support each other it is possible to
move equipment it's possible to move
patients very easily and that's because
we have an integrated whole country
health service that is very used to
doing that and can work together
together very quickly but the final
point I'd like to make is you you do see
differences in approaches between
country but the fundamental science
underneath this and the fundamental
objective of all the approaches is to
reduce the transmission rate so
everything that you see in every country
including all the measures here are
designed to reduce the transmission rate
it's it's very simple maths if one
person insects two people and those two
people another two then the virus
increases at a very fast exponential
rate if we avoid contact with each other
and for instance for every two people
one person is infected then it will very
rapidly decline and that is the the
fundamental approach that every country
is taking in the measures that they take
so you may see subtlety in the
difference of the exact measures but the
objective is exactly the same to reduce
the spread of the virus Thanks okay so
just a little bit of details of that
perhaps on the epidemiology I think you
were mentioning South Korea and Germany
so South Korea was a very particular
example in a way in the sense that it
had a very significant outbreak in two
locations and in fact the way that it
deals with that has been the same that
we were deal for example with an
outbreak in a care home we are still
very much contact tracing in detail
those outbreaks to contain them it was a
very unusual event I think they have had
162 deaths for 9700 86 cases and that's
probably not too dissimilar of balance
to the UK figures actually at the moment
but I'll come back to that Germany is
very interesting they've had sixty two
thousand two hundred and eighty five
phone cases 590 overnight but
significantly fewer deaths at the moment
but I think what I wanted to use this
example for is just to show how
difficult it is to compare countries
because in the German testing system the
proportion of the population that have
been tested is considerably skewed
towards the younger end now in due
course it's very likely that older
people will come through their system as
well and we really need to we will not
be able to answer this question to be
honest until right at the end of the
outbreak if we look back in a year's
time we will be able to compare who we
tested what the demographic of the
population was how many people of what
age the different geographies and the
different testing principles but it is
not possible to do this at the moment
and but I think just to reassure viewers
we have looked particularly we always
want to learn from other countries and
the colleague of mine has spoken
directly with the epidemiologist at the
Robert Koch Institute in Germany to
ensure that we are as Steven said using
comparable techniques and that we're not
missing anything that we could be
applying here thank you we'll turn now
to jason groves of the Daily Mail Jason
thank you device in the death toll today
is shocking can you give us any idea of
when the peak might come and how much
worse that death toll might get in the
meantime and I'm testing you all seem to
agree that we need more testing you've
said there's a global problem but
Germany is testing seventy thousand a
day we're struggling to test ten
thousand a day why are we doing so badly
and do we ultimately want to move to a
system of community testing - so the
looking actually get out of this
lockdown situation thank you Jason um
you're absolutely right the the increase
in the number of deaths is deeply
disturbing moving and that's one
of the reasons why as Steven wanted out
earlier it's so important people
maintain the social distancing measures
in order to
improve and increase the resilience of
the NHS and to slow the spread of the
disease we've been asked before when the
peak will come well there's not a fixed
moment in time there's not a fixed date
like Easter when you know that the
people come it depends on the actions of
all of us we can delay that peak we can
flatten the curve through our own
particular actions and on testing it is
important you absently write that we
increase the number of tests and that's
why the international work of the prime
minister in the health secretary our
leading is so important but I'll just
ask Stephen and Jenny to say a little
bit about some of the testing
comparisons which may or may not be
valid and some of them which are perhaps
more illuminating so maybe on the deaths
so that numbers will vary from day to
day and I think what's important is to
look over a number of days rather than
from one day to the next for instance
over the last few days we've seen a
decrease so I think it's important to
look at a series of days rather than an
individual day but as I said earlier the
sequence of progress that we will make
here is that we will likely see a
reduction in the number of infections
first followed by a reduction in the
number of hospitalizations probably a
week or two later and then finally a
reduction in the number of that because
that clearly is a sequence infection
hospitalization and then unfortunately
for some death so so I expect that we
will still see unfortunately a rise in
deaths because that is that is the
indicate the measure that unfortunately
we will turn around last so as I said
earlier on the infections and on the
rate of transmission green shoots but
those green shoots will take a while if
they persist to translate into reduction
in hospital admissions and deaths and I
think maybe Jenny can take the testing
question so I think the important thing
is we want to be testing where it is
useful otherwise it's a wasted effort
and we definitely want to be doing more
testing but you mentioned community
testing we have excellent
community testing in this country that's
how we manage normal outbreaks and we're
very successful and internationally
renowned for that and we have applied
community testing very robustly and
containment during the containment phase
and I know this can be quite difficult
for people to understand when you say
you're switching to a different
mechanism it's not that we are not
testing what we're doing is focusing on
using testing for clinical care as a
priority which I think people understand
completely and then secondly around
getting our frontline workers and
actually then everybody back into safe
work at the moment if you were a member
of the public and you tested positive
you would not be taking any different
action to the action that we are asking
you to do currently if we send a
clinical teammate to test you at your
home we will be using capacity we could
be using in the Health Service but the
test that I referred to in an earlier
question around a postal test which we
are trying to ensure is a robust test to
use would be extremely useful both for
our health service workers getting
families back running again from their
isolation and and to understand the
epidemiology of the disease but I think
we also need to be back on this it's the
have you got it and have you had it test
because the have you had it test is
actually the secret to your answer about
the lockdown element if we know how many
people have already had it we will
understand the proportion of the
population that could still get it and
that gives us the clue to a number of
things for example if we are able to
develop vaccines going forward we would
know how many people we needed to
immunize if we are going to take
lockdown measures off we can model to
say actually we know this proportion of
the population is still likely to get
the disease so what happens to our
second spike potentially if we take them
off so those tests are just as important
and at the moment we have started a
number of tests
the public health England facility is
one and then other scientists working in
testing cohorts of people groups of
people which are age specified if you
like so that we can get to start to get
a good idea of how many people in the
population have had it and then
extrapolate that number out so so we get
a picture for the whole whole country so
that actually is more of a clue in many
ways to managing the end of the outbreak
and one we can take the locks off thank
you very much any will now turn to Hugo
guy from the I you go thank you prefer
professor Paris can you give us any more
information about the NHS is critical
care capacity but there any figures
available about on to what extent that
capacity has been filled so far
to what extent that capacity will be
filled do we still expect that demand
will stay within the NHS is capacity and
are there any issues on specifically the
question of how quickly people can come
out of intensive care once they go in
are we still satisfied that all those
figures are all those models are working
in the right way so that the NHS can
stay within capacity throughout the
whole outro thank you good evening yes
so as I said earlier our plan is to
increase capacity and in particular to
increase capacity of beds that can be
used for patients for individuals who
need to be ventilated so that he's put
on a ventilator machine to support the
their breathing and that is what we've
been doing over the last month or so and
that is what we will continue to do so
so if I give you London as an example
because London is the part of the
country that is most under pressure at
the moment typically we have around 700
critical care beds in London and
Serge has been to double lows up to 1400
so we are increasing every day we are
well above a thousand now we haven't
reached that surge capacity within the
hospitals of 1400 and the number of
people on critical care in London is
still below that number now of course we
have patients on intensive care critical
care units who have conditions other
than kovat 19 and it's important that we
maintain and we are maintaining the beds
for those patients although as we have
stepped down elective surgery that also
gives us more capacity because in
complex elective surgery people can
require intensive care beds so as I said
a few days ago and it is still the case
the pressure is building on London we
are seeing increases every day but we
still have Headroom and we still have
surge capacity to move into and of
course the Nightingale Hospital East
London is an additional facility where
we have built additional beds that can
be used for ventilated patients that
will be ready to come on stream later in
the week should we need to surge out of
our hospitals into the Excel into the
NHS Nightingale and as you know we have
plans in Birmingham and Manchester for a
similar model but the rest of the
country is a little bit further behind
so we are within capacity pressure is
building if the measures that we have
implemented work as I said earlier then
that will start to relieve the pressure
which is why it's so important we all
keep to them thank you very much
and we'll turn now to Paul Crichton from
The Daily Record you talked about
reducing contact as the ministers do
every day but at the dealer record we
could reports every day from employees
being asked to turn up for work at what
most people would consider non-essential
industries this isn't just a London
problem in Scotland trade unions report
construction and maintenance road
maintenance continues insurance call
centres tell their staff their work is
essential we even have defense
contractors continue to build precision
guided weaponry hardly life sitting in
distance as the first minister said
today we can rebuild the economy but we
can't bring back lines so why are we
continue to risk lies and the health of
that line stop by allowing people to go
to non-essential jobs isn't it time for
new guidelines on who should punish in
me at work and one for poor Jenny Harris
claps last week we had LV 21 you don't
succumb to coronavirus and today sadly
we heard of the death of a 19 year old
apparently with no underlying health
problems our young people wrong to think
that coronavirus is just something that
affects all people thank you I
appreciate that when people are
considering decisions about going to
work the one thing that they want to do
is to know am i doing the right thing
well we've stressed that wherever
possible people should work at home now
that's easier in some jobs careers and
professions than ours but there are
people who are going to work out in
construction and in manufacturing and in
food production and supply who are
contributing to making sure that the
broader health and well-being of the
nation is maintained there's clear
guidance on the importance of social
distancing if it is the case that any
employee feels that for example their
work in a call center which can often be
vital to making sure that services are
provided is not consistent with public
health England or other social
distancing guidelines
I hope they'd get in touch with me and
indeed with your excellent newspaper so
we can point out to their employers the
vital importance of making sure that
people are kept safe at work there are
some roles which require people to to
work in the workplace in manufacturing
and elsewhere but social distancing
rules should be followed wherever
possible and no one should feel that
there are unsafe at work and I'd also
say that trade unions have an important
role to play here in making sure
employers are aware of their
responsibilities and obligations as well
but Jenny thank you yes I mean how sad
is it that them two very young people at
the start of their lives have have lost
their life and I'm sure that has come as
a huge shock to their families I think
we have been clear that although the
what we know about this disease is that
in general younger people are not having
significant severe illness it is the
case very sadly and it is actually the
case with flu for example although we
perhaps don't communicate that
frequently that young people can still
be affected I think in some of the and I
don't wish to put an ageist picture on
this at all but I think because when
you're younger you tend not to think of
death dying and that it's not something
which is part of your usual
consideration it is quite easy perhaps
to not think of yourself as a part of
the the risk or part of the affected
group and so they are really sad
reminders that it doesn't matter what
age you are you should be staying at
home and observing all the social
distancing measures that we have
highlighted and obviously for anybody
regardless of age if you are ill or if
you're self isolating and you don't
start getting better after a few days
then you do need to consult your the
medical services dial 1 1 1 or 9 9 9 is
an emergency
thank you very much Jenny I'd like to
thank Jenny and Stephen very much indeed
for joining me thank you all thank